TARANAKI.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume IX, Issue 440, 10 August 1850, Page 95

TARANAKI.

[Prom a Correspondent of the WtlKngitm IdcUpendent.2 New Plymouth June 1, 1&50. Wheat sowing is now the chief occupation of our farmers, they have obtained a desirable change of seed from the clays of Kawia. The remurierative prices now paid for flour will cause an extra breadth of wheat to be grown for next harvest. With regard to other articles of produce the California demand is beneficially affecting Us ; carrots, onions, and potatoes pay well at present fates, the price of dairy produce is also satisfactory.

Our Crown Grants have all at length arrived, they comprise the Fitzßoy block of 3,500 acres ; Grey, do., 9,770 ; Omata, do., 12,000 ; Tataraimaki, do., 4,000 ; Hua, do., 70. Total, 29,340. Of this land about half, or 15,000 acres, are not yet selected, so that we bave still ample space for new comers ; but the majority of it is timber land, and timber land is not in general favour. As to its real value in comparison with fern land, we hardly yet know, after an experience of seven or eight years, how to give a decided opinion. This ought not to be. General opinion is in favour of the fern, but general opinion is too often wrong to allow it alone to decide the question. Farmers are bad book-keeper^ and it must be owing to the want of regular records of expenses and results that this question, now one of great importance td the place, is still in such a state of uncertainty. Old prejudices bias. The majority of farmers would rather plough a day than use the axe for. half as many hours; they like open furrows, and fiel Is free of all obstructions ; thus it comes to pass, that while fern sections broken, difficult of access, exposed, and comparatively barren, are sought after with avidity,, blocks of forest land well timbered, level, fertile in the extreme, are passed over as unworthy of attention. It seems late now to mention our statistical returns for the past year, but as they appear not to be officially published, we have only of late had an opportunity of inspecting them. They show a gratifying progress. In numbers we have increased 73. Out of a population of 1,190, we have had 59 births, 10 deaths, and 8 marriages. Our places of worship have increased from five to seven.

Cattle and sheep have not increased in the expected ratio ; this is easily accounted for, as mutton and beef, till within the last year, have not been regularly killed for the supply of the population. We bave 1,500 sheep, 900 cattle, and 53 horses.

In land under cultivation we have to record the very satiafactory increase of 605 acres. Of the 2,751 acres returned under this head, about 850 were grass, 900 wheat, the rest devoted to turnips, barley, and potatoes. We have not time for details of exports and imports, they have however been equally satisfactory — all proving the soundness of the settlement, and giving good promise of that exceeding prosperity, to which we hope and expect it is ere long to attain.

June 8. — The schooner Erina, on the morning of the 4th, wind S. W., and fair for Kawia, her destination, owing to a singular mistake of her mate in misunderstanding by some 6 or 8 points the course given by the master, was fairly steered on to . the beach near the Enui river. It is doubtful if she be considered worth getting off again.

Bonaparte's Poverty in Early Life. — M Thiers, in his " History of the Consulate," relate' some very strange and previously-unknown par ticulars respecting the early life and penury of Napoleon Bonaparte. It appears that, after he had ' obtained ' a subaltern's commission in the French service, and after he had done the State good seryire by his skill and daring at Toulon, he lived for some time in Paris in obscure lodgings, and in such extreme poverty that he was often without the means of paying 10 sous (5d.) for his dinner, and' frequently went without any meal at all! He w«s under the "necessity of borrowing, small sums, and even worn-out clothes, from his acquaintances ! He and his brother Louis, afterwards WHag of Holland, had at one time only one coat between them, so the brothers could only go out alternately, turn and turn about. At this Crisis, the chief benefactor of tbe future emperor And conqueror, " at whose mighty name the world grew pale," was the actor Talma, who often gave him ' food and money. Napoleon's face, always so famed for its classical mould, was, during this period of starvation, harsh and angular in its lineaments, with projecting cheek bones. His meagre ifare brought on an unpleaasnt and unsightly o utaneous disease, of a type so virulent and malignant, that it took all the skill and assiduity of his accomplished physician, Corvisart, to expel it after a duration of more than ten years. The squalid beggar then, the splendid emperor afterwards — the threadbare habiliments, the imperial mantle— the hovel and the palace — the ju eager food and' the gorgeous banquet — the friendship of a poor actor, tbe homage and terror of the world — an exile and a prisoner — such are the tips- and downs of this changeable life, such -the lights and shadows of the great and might}.'